The US media almost entirely ignores news regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. As Tony Snow of the Fox News Network has put it, this is probably the most under-reported news story of the year. Most Americans are unaware that the Islamic Republic of Iran is NOT supported by the masses of Iranians today. Modern Iranians are among the most pro-American in the Middle East.

There is a popular revolt against the Iranian regime brewing in Iran today. I began these daily threads June 10th 2003. On that date Iranians once again began taking to the streets to express their desire for a regime change. Today in Iran, most want to replace the regime with a secular democracy.

The regime is working hard to keep the news about the protest movement in Iran from being reported. Unfortunately, the regime has successfully prohibited western news reporters from covering the demonstrations. The voices of discontent within Iran are sometime murdered, more often imprisoned. Still the people continue to take to the streets to demonstrate against the regime.

In support of this revolt, Iranians in America have been broadcasting news stories by satellite into Iran. This 21st century news link has greatly encouraged these protests. The regime has been attempting to jam the signals, and locate the satellite dishes. Still the people violate the law and listen to these broadcasts. Iranians also use the Internet and the regime attempts to block their access to news against the regime. In spite of this, many Iranians inside of Iran read these posts daily to keep informed of the events in their own country.

This daily thread contains nearly all of the English news reports on Iran. It is thorough. If you follow this thread you will witness, I believe, the transformation of a nation. This daily thread provides a central place where those interested in the events in Iran can find the best news and commentary. The news stories and commentary will from time to time include material from the regime itself. But if you read the post you will discover for yourself, the real story of what is occurring in Iran and its effects on the war on terror.

I am not of Iranian heritage. I am an American committed to supporting the efforts of those in Iran seeking to replace their government with a secular democracy. I am in contact with leaders of the Iranian community here in the United States and in Iran itself.

If you read the daily posts you will gain a better understanding of the US war on terrorism, the Middle East and why we need to support a change of regime in Iran. Feel free to ask your questions and post news stories you discover in the weeks to come.

If all goes well Iran will be free soon and I am convinced become a major ally in the war on terrorism. The regime will fall. Iran will be free. It is just a matter of time.

The United States today sniffed at Iran's promise to improve cooperation and transparency with UN's nuclear watchdog, saying the Islamic republic had reneged on similar vows in the past.

The State Department said that solid actions and not verbal promises to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were the only way Iran could dispel allegations that it is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons.

"We've heard promises like that before and we've also seen them broken before," deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said when asked about Iran's pledge to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to accelerate cooperation with the agency.

"It's great if they actually live up to their promise, but so far they haven't done that," he told reporters. "And really until they do that, this investigation, this process of review by the IAEA, has to continue."

ElBaradei announced in Tehran overnight that Iran had pledged to file a new report on its nuclear activities before the IAEA governing board next meets in June.

He also said Tehran had agreed to a tough action plan and timetable aimed at clearing up serious questions over its bid to generate atomic power - seen by the United States and Israel as a cover for weapons development.

"Today I was reassured by Dr Rowhani that Iran is committed to continue to actively cooperate," ElBaradei said after five hours of intense negotiations with Iran's nuclear point-man - national security chief Hassan Rowhani.

"I can tell you that I am quite satisfied," he said, saying his talks had yielded "welcome and positive steps".

Before going into the talks, ElBaradei warned that the IAEA's 35 member board of governors was becoming "impatient with Iran" after it failed to give a comprehensive declaration of its nuclear activities and has delayed crucial inspections.

Last October Iran gave the IAEA what it asserted was a complete declaration of its nuclear activities. It was later found to have made a number of omissions, including its acquisition of designs for sophisticated centrifuges that can enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels.

Ereli noted that had backed out of a February pledge to suspend assembly and testing of such centrifuges and that it had not yet complied with the November promise to halt uranium enrichment.

Iran's atomic energy chief, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, said Iran had refused a call from ElBaradei to delay its resumption of uranium conversion work - or producing the precursors for the enrichment process. Iran insists such work does not violate its promise to suspend of enrichment-related activities.

On March 26, Mohammad Khatami vented his anger over Israel's killing of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. "The heinous crime reflects a cowardly behaviour of the occupying Israeli regime as well as its fear of Palestinian resistance." The hollow man of the clerical government could not of course pass up the opportunity of singing another serenade under the bloodstained windows of Middle-Eastern terrorism.

Words for Mohammad Khatami are pliable material to be employed for reconstructing reality and glossing over flagrant falsehoods and inconsistencies. It never occurs to him however that his sanctimonious remarks more than anything else are an indictment of the Islamic regime itself and its dastardly method of eliminating whomever it has feared since the day of its inception. The ruling mullahs have a habit of never seeing the plank in their own eyes.

Mr. Khatami of course has no remembrance of those Iranians executed or gunned down over the past quarter of a century by the assassins of the totalitarian government in Tehran. Those Iranians were targeted for possessing three qualities that terrorize terrorists: patriotism, courage and integrity.

Today, on the day of Farvardigan (19 of Farvardeen), the day in our calendar on which ancient Iranians honoured the spirit of their departed loved ones and the memory of their lost heroes, we pay tribute to those men and women whose power, unlike Khatami's heroes did not depend on the quantity of the explosives they carried under their belts or the amount of damage they could inflict on their fellow human beings. We honour those brave men and women whose strength rested in the humanity of their character and the steadiness of their moral fortitude.

Our immortal national heroes were not trained in guerrilla camps by the likes of Osama bin Laden or indoctrinated in extremism by Sheikh Yassin, but like Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar and Foreign Minister Abbas Ali Khalatbari had studied in the best universities in the world and had earned their degrees in law and humanities.

On Farvardigan we pay homage not to fanatical leaders like Ruhollah Khomeini who set a price on the head of writers and intellectuals, but venerate those such as Amir Abbas Hoveyda who enjoyed the friendship of the best thinkers of the era engaging in correspondence and dialogue with the most eminent national and international luminaries.

Our heroes unlike another idol of Mr. Khatami - Assadollah Lajevardi (the prison chief of Tehran dubbed 'The Butcher') are not remembered for incarcerating our compatriots and watching over their beaten and tortured bodies. Instead, like our country's valiant Captain Shahriar Shafigh they are immortalized for watching over our territorial integrity. We remember him and his proud naval fleet for helping to restore to our homeland the islands of Greater and Smaller Tunb and Abumosa. Captain Shahriar Shafigh stands especially close to our hearts for exactly the same reasons that twenty-five years ago put him on the top of the assassination list of the Islamic Republic: his unswerving devotion to his homeland.

And how can any Iranian forget General Rahimi captured by Khomeini's henchmen after the triumph of anarchy and barbarity in our country? How can anyone forget his unfaltering devotion to his king and his country? How can we forget his great self-composure and exquisite sense of humour under circumstances that would break anyone's spirit? How can we forget his bright and intelligent face beside that grim and snarling incarnation of envy and dogmatism in the person of Ebrahim Yazdi?

How can we ever forget the thousands of other Iranians murdered by an inhuman regime that has only succeeded in defeating the brightest hopes and aspiration of our nation?

Farvardigan is a day for remembering the dead, but its real lessons and admonitions are for the living. By marking this day, we remind ourselves that no matter who we are or where we are, the same incontrovertible end await us all.

Could the ruling mullahs in Iran register the real significance of this day and the eternal shame that will forever be invoked by the hateful memory of their crimes, they would not cling to their illegitimate power at any cost.

IRANIAN NEWS AGENCIES FLOURISHING. The Azad News Agency started producing test dispatches on 16 March and will begin its regular service in May, becoming the newest example of a recent flourishing of such agencies in Iran. Azad becomes Iran's ninth news agency.

The country's official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) began life as Pars Agency in 1934. The Foreign Ministry and, later, other state institutions ran it until 1963, when the Information Ministry took over and renamed it Pars News Agency. After the Islamic revolution in 1979, the Information Ministry was renamed the Guidance Ministry, and Pars News Agency was renamed IRNA. In September 2001, current IRNA head Abdullah Nasseri-Taheri took over from Fereidun Verdinejad, who had run the agency for 10 years. IRNA publishes several publications, including the Persian-language "Iran," the English-language "Iran Daily," and a monthly about interior design called "Iran-i Azin." IRNA's website is http://www.irna.ir

The Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), which receives some government funding and is affiliated with the University Jihad, a state-backed students' organization, began operations in 1998. The agency writes about issues relevant to students, and ISNA Director-General Abolfazl Fateh complained that in June 2003 police beat him with batons after he objected to their throwing stones at protesting students (see "RFE/RL Iran Report," 23 June 2003). Its website is http://www.isna.ir

The privately owned Fars News Agency received its license in November 1998, Reuters reported at the time. It actually began operating in 2002 and is headed by Said Najar-Nobari, who previously headed the Tehran Justice Department's public relations bureau. Other individuals associated with Fars News Agency have a similarly conservative background. Managing Editor Mehdi Fazel is editor in chief of the daily "Javan," and the board of directors includes "Farda" editor Alireza Shemirani and "Resalat" journalists Abdullah Moghaddam and Akbar Nabavi. Its website is http://www.farsnews.com

The Pupils Association News Agency started operation in September 2002 as a joint effort of the Education Ministry and the Islamic Culture and Guidance Ministry. It is affiliated with IRNA, and its objectives include training reporters and reporting news that interests students. Its website is http://www.irna.ir/pana

SHANA (Shabakeh-yi Ettelaat-i Naft va Energi) News Agency, which is affiliated with the Petroleum Ministry, began work in early 2003, according to a December dispatch from IRNA. Its website is http://www.shana.ir/peAffiliated with the Worker's House (Khaneh-yi Kargar) labor organization, the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) was launched in February 2003. It is headed by Masud Heidari and one of its founders was Ali-Reza Mahjoub of the Islamic Labor Party. Heidari said on 10 December 2002 that the agency would discuss workers' demands, IRNA reported. However, it does not seem to run any more worker-related news than other agencies do. Its website is http://www.ilna.ir

Veterans of the Iran-Iraq War founded Mehr News Agency on 22 June 2003. Its managing director is Parviz Ismaili, a columnist with the conservative "Entekhab" newspaper. Its website is http://www.mehrnews.com

The establishment of Mowj News Agency was announced in "Iran" in July 2003, while ILNA reported that it began trial operations in September 2003. Its website is http://www.mowjnews.com

The newest entrant is Azad News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Open University, Azad chief Mohammad Reza Karimi said, adding that its objectives are communicating with and exchanging information with the world's other universities, IRNA reported on 16 March. "The [Islamic Open University], with more than 2.5 million students and graduates, 25,000 academic staff, and 220 branches across Iran and abroad, is the largest Iranian university and academic complex, and therefore the establishment of a news agency to cover the above mentioned meets a longstanding need," Karimi said. Karimi added that the agency will have offices in Ahvaz, Arak, Isfahan, Kerman, Mashhad, Shiraz, Sari, Semnan, Tabriz, and Tehran. Its website is http://www.ana.ir (Bill Samii)

Tehran, April 6, IRNA -- President Mohammad Khatami here on Tuesday warned abusing human rights and democracy, saying the two are the most important achievements of human beings, gained at a dear cost. Addressing a group of youth, President Khatami said those, who are major violators of human rights, deprive countries of their independence and progress in the name of defending human rights and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been subject to mounting pressures, growing assaults and attacks in the process. "Those driving their tanks towards people and bomb a town just because of a mere protest and demonstration (by the people) have no right to speak of human rights and are not entitled to claim to be championing human rights," said President Khatami. The president deplored that human rights and democracy are abused at the international level. President Khatami made pointed reference to the latest violence in Iraq, which left dozens of Iraqis either killed or injured by the US-led coalition. Focusing on Iran, President Khatami said that Iranian society is moving towards modernism, freedom, and development as well as respect for man`s dignity, marking public victory. He said that Iranian community is in pressing need of a civil society having its roots in the school of thought of Prophet Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him and His Progeny). He added that the kind of civil society he meant was the one wherein power is centralized but no despotism exists. He ruled out hopes for administration of a secular system in Iran and said, "Those pinning hopes on the republic system, should know that no secular republic would be formed in Iran." Elsewhere in his remarks, President Khatami called for appreciating the youth, and said any disrespect for this strata would be tantamount to spread of poverty, corruption, addiction, immigration and a host of problems.

Regime Change in Iran doesn't mean we have to go there using our Military, It means that we have to support their fight for freedom and help them get rid of the Mullahs soon. As soon as the Mullahs gone, the Iraq and Afghanistan will become secure and safe.

Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr, the fiery Iraqi Shi'ite cleric who ordered his fanatical militia to attack coalition troops, is being supported by Iran and its terror surrogate Hezbollah, according to military sources with access to recent intelligence reports.

Sheik al-Sadr's bid to spark a widespread uprising in Iraq comes at a particularly pivotal time. The United States is conducting a massive troop rotation that leaves inexperienced troops in some locations, including Fallujah, which is west of Baghdad and where Sunnis have mounted another series of rebellions.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that he will consider more U.S. forces for Iraq if his top commander there, Gen. John Abizaid, requests them. There are about 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, and the force strength is scheduled to shrink by 15,000 once the rotation is completed.

"The commanders are using the excess of forces that happen to be in there because of the deployment process," Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters. "They will decide what they need, and they will get what they need."

Sheik al-Sadr, who has traveled to Iran and met with its hard-line Shi'ite clerics, is an ardent foe of the United States who wants all foreign troops to leave.

The United States suspects that his goal is to create a hard-line Shi'ite regime in Iraq modeled after Tehran's government. Military sources said Sheik al-Sadr is being aided directly by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, which plays a large role in running that country, and by Hezbollah, an Iranian-created terrorist group based in Lebanon.

One of the sources said these two organizations are supplying the cleric with money, spiritual support and possibly weapons. "Iran does not want a success in Iraq," the source said.

"A democratic Iraq is a death knell to the mullahs." Sheik al-Sadr upped the ante during the weekend by calling for his 3,000-strong militia, the Army of the Mahdi, to begin attacking coalition forces. His fiery words touched off attacks throughout southern Iraq.

The Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad announced on Monday that an Iraqi judge months ago had issued an arrest warrant for Sheik al-Sadr on a charge of murdering a moderate Shi'ite cleric.

The question for U.S. commanders is how to arrest Sheik al-Sadr without further enraging his small but violent group of followers. "Let the Iraqis kill him," said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney. "We should not kill him, but we may have to. He's trying to create an uprising. This is their Tet offensive. We're going to kill a lot of them just like we did at Tet."

John Hillen, a former Army captain who fought in Operation Desert Storm during the 1991 Persian Gulf war, said the first step should be to try to discredit the cleric, using the condemnation of moderate Shi'ite leaders, before arresting him.

"You need to defuse the situation," Mr. Hillen said. "You need to make it Iraqi versus Iraqi. You've got to discredit him by his own people and find legitimate sources on our side. Make this as much a Shi'ite-to-Shi'ite issue as opposed to the Americans versus Sadr."

The U.S. military is trying new tactics to try to quell insurgents in Fallujah, avoiding time-consuming house-to-house sweeps in favor of targeted raids based on hard intelligence. When the 82nd Airborne Division first tried to subdue Fallujah in the summer, units went block by block to locate insurgents. Now, in the second intense battle for the city of Saddam Hussein loyalists, intelligence collection has improved and U.S. Marines can target specific dwellings.

"The plan is not to go house to house, street to street. We are trying to get insurgents," Capt. Ed Sullivan told Agence France-Presse.

Mr. Hillen said such precision operations mean that the Marines are getting good intelligence. "If you have good intelligence beforehand, which is the key to the whole Fallujah-type operations, you can at the same time be precise and overwhelming. We've been in and around Fallujah for quite some time, and I'm sure we have some pretty good intelligence sources there."

Mr. Rumsfeld said part of the intelligence resources are photographs of Iraqis who participated in the killings and mutilations of four American contractors. The former military commandos were serving as security staff in Fallujah and moving on a main road frequently traveled by coalition personnel when they were ambushed.

"They have photographs of a good many people who were involved in the attacks against the individuals, and they have been conducting raids in the city against high-value targets," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "They've captured a number of people over the past 36 hours. The city is isolated. A number of people have resisted and been killed. And it will be a methodical effort to find the individuals who were involved."

-- "President Mohammad Khatami here on Tuesday warned abusing human rights and democracy, saying the two are the most important achievements of human beings"

Yes, and since he's NOT human, he continues to torture, whip, mutilate and abuse people.

"those, who are major violators of human rights,[THE IRANIAN REGIME] deprive countries of their independence and progress in the name of defending human rights and the Islamic Republic of Iran has been subject to mounting pressures, growing assaults and attacks in the process."

Yes. the World is PICKING on Iran. The regime is totally innocent and wonderful to its people. I think I've heard Kim Jong Il say this also.

"The president deplored that human rights and democracy are abused at the international level."

How about deploring it at the LOCAL level?

"Those driving their tanks towards people and bomb a town just because of a mere protest and demonstration (by the people) have no right to speak of human rights and are not entitled to claim to be championing human rights,"

How about those flying helicopters and shooting protesters on the ground from the air?

"Khatami said that Iranian society is moving towards modernism, freedom, and development as well as respect for man`s dignity, marking public victory."

Moving toward it at a snail's pace! ... If perceivable at all.

"He said that Iranian community is in pressing need of a civil society having its roots in the school of thought of Prophet Mohammad ."

The Iranian regime needs to have its roots in the Ten Commandments.

"He ruled out hopes for administration of a secular system in Iran and said, "Those pinning hopes on the republic system, should know that no secular republic would be formed in Iran."

In other words, he's a WIMP.

15
posted on 04/07/2004 8:21:41 AM PDT
by nuconvert
("America will never be intimidated by thugs and assassins." ( President Bush 3-20-04))

KUWAIT CITY -- A Kuwaiti newspaper yesterday accused Iran and Syria of backing anti-US insurgents in Iraq among radical Shia and Sunnis, and urged Washington to confront this interference with the use of force.

Al Seyassah editor Ahmad Al Jarallah said in a front-page editorial that Lebanon's Shia militia Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas had joined hands with Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army to form an "axis of evil."

"They are backed by the ruling religious fundamentalists in Teheran and the nationalist Baathists in Damascus," he said.

VIENNA -- Iran will start building a heavy water reactor in June that can produce weapons-grade plutonium, diplomats said Wednesday. Although Tehran insists the facility is purely for research, the decision heightens concern about its nuclear aims.

One of the diplomats said that - if built to plan - the 40-megawatt reactor could produce enough plutonium for a nuclear weapon each year. He did not go into specifics, but four kilograms (8.8 pounds) is what experts commonly say is needed for such a weapon.

The diplomats said Iran already had announced plans to build such a reactor last year to the UN nuclear watchdog agency.

Iranian officials had previously suggested construction had already begun. But the diplomats suggested that was wrong. They said Iranian officials announced the June date for the first time during talks Tuesday in Tehran with Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency that is examining Iran's nuclear program for possible weapons ambitions.

They said that with Iran open about its desire to build the facility, the decision to start breaking the ground in June was not an overt example of Tehran backtracking on pledges to dispel all suspicions.

Still, it "sends a bad signal at a time all eyes are on Iran," one of the diplomats told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. He was alluding to international scrutiny that began when the International Atomic Energy Agency discovered last year that Tehran had not disclosed large-scale efforts to enrich uranium, which can be used in nuclear warheads.

Finds of weapons-grade uranium traces and evidence of suspicious experiments heightened concerns and led to series of critical resolutions by the IAEA's board of governors that nonetheless stopped short of U.S. demands that Iran be bought before the UN Security Council.

Iran argues that it needs the reactor to produce radioisotopes for medical research. But spent fuel rods from the heavy water nuclear reactor it plans to build can be reprocessed to produce plutonium, - used, like highly enriched uranium, for nuclear warheads.

The reactor would be subject to IAEA inspections and other controls to make sure no plutonium is created.

Still, the United States and other countries accusing Iran of hiding a nuclear weapons program will likely seize on Iran's plans as further evidence that the Islamic Republic is not acting in good faith to lay to rest all fears about its intentions.

"We feel strongly that there is no need for indigenous heavy water in Iran," said a Western diplomat. "It's not necessary and highly suspicious."

The reactor site is at Arak, next to an already built heavy water production plant. It is to replace a reactor using non-weapons grade enriched uranium that the Iranians mothballed because they said it was outmoded and lacked fuel.

Because enrichment can be used both to generate power and make nuclear warheads, Iran has said it has suspended all enrichment activities to prove its peaceful intentions. It also cannot buy enriched fuel on legal markets because of international suspicions about its intentions.

The June date is particularly sensitive - it's when the IAEA board of governors next meets on a progress report on Iran drawn up by ElBaradei that - if negative - could lead to Security Council involvement.

Seeking to weaken such sentiment and counter accusations of continued deceit, Iran on Tuesday pledged to reveal all it knows on its nuclear activities as part of a "road map" committing it to meeting specific deadlines on disclosing information demanded by the IAEA.

"We have agreed on an action plan with a timetable with how to move forward on the major outstanding issues," said ElBaradei, after meeting with Hasan Rowhani, secretary of Iran's powerful National Security Council.

ElBaradei said Iran would also deliver a complete dossier on its present and future nuclear activities by the end of April.

Critics say Iran has reneged on commitments to win international trust as IAEA inspectors have discovered new evidence of past experiments that could be used to develop weapons.

Adding to the skepticism was Iran's announcement last month that it inaugurated a uranium conversion facility in Isfahan, 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of Tehran, to process uranium ore into gas - a crucial step before uranium enrichment.

Iran insists the move does not contravene its pledge to suspend enrichment. But Britain, France and Germany - which have blunted past U.S. attempts to come down hard on Iran - said the plant sent the wrong signal.

Last year, the three secured Iran's agreement to suspend enrichment and cooperate with the IAEA in exchange for promised access to western technology.

Recent acts of barbarism against Coalition forces in Iraq have revived an old and enormously important debate: Are these terrorists the products of fanatic tyrannies, or are the tyrannies the logical expression of the true nature of the peoples of the region?

This is not an academic exercise, for many argue that our foreign policy depends on the answer. If we believe that the barbarism is the result of the likes of Saddam Hussein and the Iranian mullahs, then the war against terrorism should concentrate on regime change. Once the tyrants are removed, the terrorists will be deprived of their sustenance, and greater freedom and democracy can be expected. But, it is said, if fanaticism and barbarism are intrinsically part and parcel of the region's culture, mere regime change cannot possibly eliminate this sort of terrorism. Some way would have to be found to change the culture, and only then could terrorism be truly defeated and a political transformation succeed.

It is an ancient and highly instructive debate. It is featured in the book of Exodus in a lively confrontation between Moses and the Almighty. In one of the many uprisings against Moses, the Jews demand new leaders who will lead them back to Egypt. God reacts with disgust, tells Moses that these people are unworthy of the Divine mission, and announces his intention to kill all but a small remnant, the few people deserving of freedom and the Holy Land. Moses insists that they can be taught, and achieves a compromise: They will be spared, but will have to remain in the wilderness for 40 years. Thereafter a new generation will create Israel. Were the rebellious Jews created by Egyptian tyranny, or were they the sort of people who preferred tyranny to freedom?

The newly freed Egyptian slaves were not quickly transformed into freedom-loving democrats, despite their exceptional leaders. But in time they and their children learned the habits of mind of free people.

The greatest modern political thinker, Nicolò Machiavelli, observed that it is as difficult to bring freedom to a people accustomed to tyranny as it is to crush freedom in a free society. Yet Machiavelli knew that both had been accomplished, even though he took a very dim view of human nature ("man is more inclined to do evil than to do good").

At the end of the Second World War, the leaders of the Great Generation pondered the disposition of Germany and Japan. Many believed it was impossible to bring freedom to people who had embraced fascism and its attendant culture of death (from Japanese suicide bombers in their kamikaze aircraft to SS fighters on the ground celebrating heroic death). The celebrated George F. Kennan, then the chief of the State Department's policy-planning staff, was convinced that there were no potential democratic leaders in Germany, and that we should retain the Nazi bureaucracy. At least they knew how to manage a modern state. And in Japan, many of our wisest men insisted that the only hope for Japanese democracy was the total extirpation of the Imperial culture; the Emperor had to go.

But there were democrats in Germany who proved excellent leaders of a free country, and the emperor still sits on his throne in democratic Japan.

To those who say that democracy cannot be introduced in the Muslim Middle East, where it has never existed, there is an easy answer: If that were true, then there would be no democracy at all, since tyranny is older than democracy, and oppression has been far more common than freedom for most of human history. We all lived under tyranny before we became free; freedom has had to be wrested from the hands of kings, caliphs and nobles, and imams and priests  and it has invariably been a tough battle. But that is quite different from saying it cannot be done at all.

The history of the Muslim world abounds with example of successful self-government, from the high degree of autonomy granted to some of the lands of the Ottoman Empire to the remarkably modern Iranian Constitution of 1906, and the contemporary Middle East is currently bubbling with calls for greater freedom, often from surprising sources (such as the son of Libyan tyrant Muammar Khaddafi). It is hard to believe that the peoples of the Middle East are bound and determined to remain oppressed, when millions of Iranians have demonstrated for freedom, and, just within the past few months, pro-democracy demonstrations have erupted in Saudi Arabia and Syria.

Yet those in Iraq who are killing us and our allies, along with Arab civilians  and even themselves and their own children  are also part of the culture of the Middle East, and they draw upon it to justify their actions and inspire others to do likewise. Do we not have to change at least those elements of the region's culture? Can we expect to defeat terrorism without also discrediting the ideas and passions that underlie it? And does that not automatically mean a long process, in which political and military weapons are largely irrelevant?

I do not think so. Nothing so discredits an idea as its defeat in the real world. Had we not defeated the fascists in World War II, the heirs of Tojo, Hitler, and Mussolini would most likely still rule Japan, Germany, and Italy, and some version of fascism would most likely remain a potent force in many other societies, just as it was in the Twenties, Thirties and early Forties. But our victory in war defeated both the enemy regimes and their evil doctrines, and fascism is no longer an inspiration. If we defeat the terrorists and remove the regimes that support them, we are likely to find the appeal of bloody jihad dramatically reduced. There is undoubtedly a connection between the pro-democracy demonstrations (and Libya's surrender) and the liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The barbarians in Fallujah are part of a culture that is both bloody and peaceful, just like the Western culture that produced fascism and communism. The central issue in this war is which elements in that culture will prevail. You do not have to be a Hegelian to believe that ideas rise and fall with the people that embrace them, or that culture is linked to the success and failure of its advocates. We may not know the answer to the academic question: whether the culture favored tyrants or if the tyrants imposed a culture favorable to their domination. But we do know the answer to the policy question: tyranny and terror, along with the culture that favors them, can be defeated, to the benefit of freedom and even democracy.

The global war on terror cannot be won through counterterrorism alone; it also requires convincing the terrorists and their sympathizers that their goals and methods are faulty and failing. But how is this to be done?

By focusing on the ideological and religious sources of the violence, say I: the immediate war goal must be to destroy militant Islam and the ultimate war goal the modernization of Islam. I have not worked out the detailed implications of this policy, however.

Which explains my delight on finding that the RAND Corporations Cheryl Benard has done just this, publishing her results in a small book titled Civil Democratic Islam: Partners, Resources, and Strategies (available in full on the Internet at the RAND website, www.rand.org).

Benard recognizes the awesome ambition of the effort to modernize Islam: If nation-building is a daunting task, she notes, religion-building is immeasurably more perilous and complex. This is something never tried before; we enter uncharted territory here.

Civil Democratic Islam covers three topics: rival Muslim approaches to Islam; which approach contributes most to a moderate version of Islam; and policy recommendations for Western governments.

Like other analysts, Benard finds that in relation to their religion, Muslims divide into four groups:

 Fundamentalists, who in turn split into two. Radicals (like the Taliban) are ready to resort to violence in an attempt to create a totalitarian order. Scripturalists (like the Saudi monarchy) are more rooted in a religious establishment and less prone to rely on violence.

 Traditionalists, who also split into two. Conservatives (like Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Iraq) seek to preserve orthodox norms and old-fashioned behavior as best they can. Reformists (like the Kuwaiti rulers) have the same traditional goals but are more flexible in details and more innovative in achieving them.

 Modernists (like Muammar Qaddafi of Libya) assume that Islam is compatible with modernity and then work backwards to prove this point.

 Secularists again split into two. The mainstream (like Atatürkists in Turkey) respects religion as a private affair but permits it no role in the public arena. Radicals (like communists) see religion as bogus and reject it entirely.

The author brings these viewpoints to life in a smart, convincing presentation, showing their differences on everything from establishing the pure Islamic state to husbands having rights to beat their wives. She rightly dwells on values and lifestyles, finding dissimulation about polygamy far less commonplace than about the use of violence.

Which of these groups is most suitable to ally with? Modernists, says Benard, are most congenial to the values and the spirit of modern democratic society. Fundamentalists are the enemy, for they oppose us and we oppose them. Traditionalists have potentially useful democratic elements but generally share too much with the fundamentalists to be relied upon. Secularists are too often hostile to the West to fix Islam.

Benard then proposes a strategy for religion-building with several prongs:

 Delegitimize the immorality and hypocrisy of fundamentalists. Encourage investigative reporting into the corruption of their leaders. Criticize the flaws of traditionalism, especially its promoting backwardness.

 Support the modernists first. Support secularists on a case-by-case basis. Back the traditionalists tactically against the fundamentalists. Consistently oppose the fundamentalists.

 Assertively promote the values of Western democratic modernity. Encourage secular civic and cultural institutions. Focus on the next generation. Provide aid to states, groups, and individuals with the right attitudes.

I agree with Benards general approach, doubting only her enthusiasm for Muslim modernists, a group that through two centuries of effort has failed to help reconcile Islam with current realities. H.A.R. Gibb, the great orientalist, condemned modernist thinking in 1947 as mired in intellectual confusions and paralyzing romanticism. Writing in 1983, I dismissed modernism as a tired movement, locked in place by the unsoundness of its premises and arguments. Nothing has changed for the better since then.

Instead of modernists, I propose mainstream secularists as the forward-looking Muslims who uniquely can wrench their co-religionists out of their current slough of despair and radicalism. Secularists start with the proven premise of disentangling religion from politics; not only has this served the Western world well, but it has also worked in Turkey, the Muslim success story of our time.

Only when Muslims turn to secularism will this terrible era of their history come to an end.

TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency) - Secretary of Iran's Supreme Council for National Security, Hassan Rowhani, announced on Sunday that the international community should soon accept Iran as a member of the worlds nuclear club and call on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to close its file.

"The international community should accept Iran in the world nuclear club," Rowhani, who has headed Iran's nuclear negotiations, told an annual session of the Assembly of Experts.

Rowhani, who was speaking on the eve of a meeting by the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog's board of governors on Monday, said Iran has legitimate right to use nuclear energy for civilian purposes.

Iran insists its network of nuclear facilities is geared to produce atomic power, not bombs.

Rowhani also called on IAEA board of governors to finish a 13-month probe of Irans nuclear program.

"We must arrive at a stage where the board of governors would totally close the file on Iran's peaceful nuclear activities and take the issue out of its agenda," he told the assembly, a body of senior clerics who elect the Supreme Leader.

Rowhani said it was highly unlikely for the UN Security Council to impose possible sanctions on Iran.

"So far we have succeeded in thwarting the U.S. plots, and do not think the U.S. is in a position to send our dossier to the Security Council," he said.

Rowhani said Tehran's agreement late last year to sign the NPT Additional Protocol allowing inspectors to carry out more intrusive and snap checks of its nuclear facilities had foiled the U.S. plots.

He said Iran foiled the plot by signing up to tougher inspections, which came because of a "national consensus".

The United States has already signaled it will not seek to have Iran condemned in the Security Council. Speaking in Lisbon Thursday, U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton nevertheless said, "We are absolutely determined not to reduce the pressure on Iran."

Britain, France and Germany in October struck a deal with Iran to cooperate with the IAEA, and are still stressing the path of "constructive engagement".

As Norooz approached the buzz of New York's first Persian Parade made its way to Chicago via email. My curiosity was sparked. Things like this happen in California, but NY? So, I planned a visit to the Big Apple from Chicago. I went through the motions, emailed my friends and cousins to see what's up and coordinate, and made sure to leave Saturday morning free to go witness this event.

After a night of partying with my crew, I painfully got out of bed, got ready, and made my way towards Madison Ave. On the way, my friend Ramin called and said he was already there. Video camera in hand I met up with him. We were waiting and looking around for a while cracking jokes about whether people standing around us were really Persian or some other ethnicity that could resemble us (Puerto Rican, Cuban, etc.) hired to fill the streets. We were initially a bit disappointed with the turnout; we blamed it on inclement weather, then on the foreign concept of a parade, and finally Persians' tendency to be lazy.

Slowly but surely the parade came our way. I stood there watching through the camera's view finder thinking to myself, "Should I have stayed in bed?" I figured I came all the way to NY and I am standing here in the rain, I may as well get it all on tape since most of my friends (lazy Persians) were still sleeping anyway; I had to make sure to document what they were missing, not to mention I had to share it with my friends and family in Chicago.

Amazingly the sun started to shine, and I looked up from my video camera and noticed the transformation in the street, the DJ Float and the dancing groups were in front of us and we were surrounded.... surrounded by Iroonis!

One float and group after another they were all Persian. The spectators were Persian and others passing by wanted to know who these people are. It was beautiful! Tourists, cops, shop owners, and us, everyone wanted to know, who's who? We are Kurds, we are Turks, we are Afghans, we are Zoroastrians, we are Muslims, we are Jews, we are Christians, we are Bahai, we are Doctors, we are Lawyers, we are Business People, we are Politicians, we are Artists, we are Musicians, we are Young, we are Old, and we are MANY Other Things, yet we are ALL PERSIANS!

For the first time, I saw Persians together in once place, civilized organized, happy, proud and working together! I was delightfully impressed, and still am. Of course being the Persians that we are, nothing could be perfect: a few typos in the program, the name of the Parade as "Persian Parade Day," and some naughty boys not wanting to listen to the cops (what's life without a few shaytoons amongst us), and of course the final loitering in the streets to say our salams, ask our ahvaals, figure out where the mehmooni is and of course say our notorious hour long goodbyes.

I hope that this is a sign of the changing times and the new generation-organization, teamwork, and PRIDE within our OWN community! May our centuries of rich history help us keep our culture alive in this foreign land that we live in called the United States of America. Cheers to the Persians!

Text of report by Ali Nurizadah in London, entitled "Former Iranian intelligence officer: Tehran is deploying its agents in Iraq from north to south", published by London-based newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat on 3 April

The former official in charge of the Iraqi file in Iranian intelligence has disclosed in a statement to Al-Sharq al-Awsat information about the extensive Iranian security presence in Iraq, which he said is not confined to the Shi'i cities alone but extends from Zakho in the north to Umm al-Khasib in the south.

The official, who is known in Iraq by the name "Hajj Saeedi", said that elements from Iran's Revolutionary Guards intelligence and Quds Corps did not infiltrate into Iraqi territories during and after the war only but hundreds of intelligence agents, among them a number of Iraqi agents and returnees (Iraqis expelled by Saddam Husayn's regime in the 1970's and 1980's on the pretext of their Iranian origins) returned to Iraq before the war across the Kurdish areas that were not under the central government's control.

Iranian intelligence benefited after the war from the lack of any controls in the border areas to send a group of its best elements to Iraq, some of them disguised as students and clerics and others as part of the Shi'i organizations' militias.

"Hajj Saeedi", who fled from Iran recently, pointed out that the liquidation of Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, chairman of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, last summer was "one of the most important achievements of the Quds Corps intelligence elements who succeeded in carrying out their mission and leaving Iraq without any difficulty", according to him.

He also revealed a failed attempt to assassinate Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the senior Shi'i religious leader, and said he sent a message through a friend who visited Al-Sistani in his house on the eve of Id al-Adha last year, warning Al-Sistani not to receive some students and clerics who came from Iran to meet him after the id.

As he told Al-Sharq al-Awsat, "Hajj Saeedi" then contacted one of Al-Sistani's aides from inside Iraq and gave him details of the plan to assassinate the Shi'i leader. He added that another plan was prepared to assassinate Ayatollah Ishaq al-Fayyadi too.

Asked where the Iranian intelligence elements are based in Iraq, "Hajj Saeedi" said there are some offices in Al-Sulaymaniyah and Darband-i Khan in the north that are known to everyone, but the Kurdish authorities do not allow these offices' elements to carry out any activities that are harmful to Iraq's security and national interests. The danger comes from the offices that have fronts other than security and intelligence. They include 18 offices of "charity" foundations in Al-Kazimiyah and Madinat al-Sadr (formerly Al-Thawrah) in Baghdad, Karbala, Al-Najaf, Al-Kufah, Al-Nasiriyah, Basra and other cities where the Shi'is are the majority. They operate under the cover of helping the poor and oppressed with money, medicines, and daily necessities from food to clothes. New agents are recruited daily in these offices.

"Hajj Saeedi" went on to say that the Iranian intelligence plan for turning Iraq into a second Iran is extensive and the focus is at present on recruiting thousands of Shi'i youths for the stage during the parliamentary elections would be held in Iraq. The recruits have to mobilize their relatives and acquaintances to vote for the candidates selected by Iranian intelligence. He pointed out that the Iranian radio and television networks, press agencies and some newspapers close to the security organs are also fronts through which Quds Corps and Revolutionary Guards intelligence elements enter Iraq.

It is recalled that these networks, agencies and newspapers have more than 300 correspondents and technicians operating in Iraq at present and the possibility cannot be ruled that the Quds Corps and Guards intelligence had planted some of their elements among them as correspondents who can move in all Iraq's areas with their press cards and deliver the intelligence offices' messages and instructions to their local agents in Iraq.

Regarding the reports that the Iranian leadership has allocated 1bn dollars to prevent the establishment of a modern secular democratic state in Iraq, the official said the monthly allocations for the public and secret security offices in Iraq are more 70m dollars. An amount of 5m dollars is distributed in some religious schools as monthly salaries for the students and assistance to some clerics who are cooperating. More than 2,700 houses, apartments, and rooms were leased in Karbala and Al-Najaf by local collaborators to house the intelligence and Quds Corps elements in 14 Iraqi cities. "Hajj Saeedi" added that the measures taken by the two Kurdish administrations during recent months prompted the Revolutionary Guards and Quds Corps intelligence to implement a plan aimed at inciting the Shi'i Turkomans against the Kurds. He added that some Shi'i Turkoman leaders went to Tehran where they received huge financial aid and guarantees that Iran would support them if confrontations broke out between them and the Kurds.

He concluded his statement by saying: "In the 1980's and on the orders of Imam Khomeyni, we took our battle with the United States to Lebanon where we hit the US marines base and the US Embassy in Beirut and kidnapped William Buckley, head of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Middle East, and several American citizens. The United States was forced to recognize our role in Lebanon. We are today moving our battle with the United States to Iraq on the orders of the revolution guide so that it will recognize our role there too."

Al Seyassah editor Ahmad Al Jarallah said in a front-page editorial that Lebanon's Shia militia Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas had joined hands with Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army to form an "axis of evil."

"They are backed by the ruling religious fundamentalists in Teheran and the nationalist Baathists in Damascus," he said."

Interesting......

28
posted on 04/07/2004 3:12:20 PM PDT
by nuconvert
("America will never be intimidated by thugs and assassins." ( President Bush 3-20-04))

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